GENDER,CONFLICT, ANDDEVELOPMENT

Tsjeard BoutaGeorg FrerksIan Bannon

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Administrator30494

Gender, Conflict, andDevelopment

Gender, Conflict,and Development

Tsjeard BoutaGeorg FrerksIan Bannon

THE WORLD BANKWashington, D.C.

© 2005 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank1818 H Street, NWWashington, DC 20433Telephone: 202-473-1000Internet: www.worldbank.orgE-mail: feedback@worldbank.org

All rights reserved.

1 2 3 4 07 06 05 04

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of theauthor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of ExecutiveDirectors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in thiswork. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown onany map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of the World Bankconcerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance ofsuch boundaries.

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ISBN 0-8213-5968-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.

Photo courtesy of International Committee of the Red Cross

Photographer: Didier Bregnard

Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Authors xv

Abbreviations xvii

Executive Summary xix

1. Introduction 1Objectives and Focus 2Terminology and Concepts 2The Bank’s Approach to Gender and Conflict 6Limitations 7The Links among Gender, Conflict, and Development 8

2. Gender and Warfare: Female Combatants andSoldiers’ Wives 9Overview 9Women in Conflict 11Gender Roles in Armies 12Gender Relations in the Army 15Development Challenges: Providing Post-Conflict

Assistance to Female Ex-Soldiers 17Policy Options 22

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3. Gender-Based and Sexual Violence:A Multidimensional Approach 33Overview 33GBV and Conflict 34Gender-Specific Roles: Types of GBV 35Dynamics: A GBV Continuum 37Development Challenges: A Multidimensional Approach 38Policy Options 39

4. Gender and Formal Peace Processes 49Overview 49Gender Roles in the Peace Process 50Dynamics: Struggling for Participation 54Development Challenges: Gender-Sensitizing

the Political Process 57Policy Options 58

5. Gender, Informal Peace Processes, andRebuilding Civil Society 65Overview 65Gender Roles in Informal Peace Processes 66Dynamics: Readjusting the Work on Peace,

Rehabilitation, and Development 69Development Challenges: The Need for Sustained

External Support 70Policy Options 71

6. Gender-Sensitizing the Post-Conflict Legal Framework 77Overview 77Gender-Specific Laws, Adequate Judicial Recourse,

and Equal Access to Legal Services 78Dynamics: Non-Statutory Law and the

Legacy of Violence 80Development Challenges: Post-Conflict Legal

Foundations and Engendering the Rule of Law 81Policy Options 83

7. Gender and Work: Creating Equal Labor MarketOpportunities 89Overview 89Linking Gender and Work 91

vi contents

Gender-Specific Roles in Urban and Agricultural Work 93Dynamics: Changing Labor Market Prospects 95Development Challenges: Capitalizing on Changing

Labor Divisions and New Skills 99General Policy Options 99Rural Policy Options 101Informal Sector Policy Options 103Formal Sector Policy Options 107

8. Gender and Rehabilitating Social Services:A Focus on Education 111Overview 111Gender-Specific Roles and Needs 113Dynamics: Complex Interactions but Also

Opportunities 114Development Challenges: Sustained,

Gender-Sensitive Services 117Policy Options 118

9. Gender and Community-Driven Development 123Overview 123Gender Aspects of Social Capital and Cohesion 124Development Dynamics: Empowering

Communities and Promoting SocialCohesion through CDD 124

Development Challenges: Addressing Constraintson Women’s Participation 125

Policy Options 128

10. Policy Options 133Overview 133Relevance 134Capitalizing on Empowering Gender Role Changes 134Intra-Organizational Requirements 140Objectives, Timing, Target Groups, and Dilemmas 142

11. Further Analysis on Gender, Conflict, and Development 145Overview 145Specific Gender Roles 146Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender Relations 148Young Men at Risk 148

contents vii

Is There a Gender Dimension in ReintegratingChild Soldiers? 149

Gender and Other Differential Factors 150Macroeconomic Policies and Institution Building

in Post-Conflict Settings 150Linking Gender, Conflict, and Development Cooperation 151Social Capital, Cohesion, and Gender 152More Attention to Transformative Approaches 153

Notes 155

Bibliography 161

Index 177

boxes

2.1 Women Tamil Tigers Take on Combat Roles 132.2 Soldiers in Support Roles Are Excluded from Assistance 142.3 Women, Girls, and Boys Are Forcefully Recruited into

Civil Wars 152.4 Gender Relations Break with Tradition in Nepal’s

Maoist Army 162.5 Female Soldiers Hide Their Identity 182.6 Abducted Women in Sierra Leone Flee from the Army 192.7 Mozambique’s AMODEG, a Veterans’ Organization,

Reaches Out to Women 302.8 Women Support Reintegration in Sierra Leone 313.1 Medica Zenica Project Aids Female GBV Survivors in

Bosnia and Herzegovina 393.2 Anima Establishes a GBV Hotline 403.3 Different Methods Are Used to Raise GBV

Awareness among Men 413.4 Is There Too Much Research and Not Enough Action? 423.5 IRC’s Tanzania GBV Program Helps Burundian Female

Refugees 443.6 Peace Operations in Cambodia Had Negative

Social Impacts 46

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4.1 Building Women’s Alliances in Burundi, Liberia,and Northern Ireland 53

4.2 Women Participated in El Salvador’s Peace Negotiations 544.3 Women’s Post-Conflict Political Participation Increases

over Time 564.4 A “Women Can Do It” Campaign Unfolds in

Southeastern Europe 584.5 Burundi’s Peace Process Incorporates Gender and

Women’s Issues 594.6 Cambodian Women’s NGOs Train Successful Women

Political Candidates 604.7 Women Played an Active Political Role in Post-Conflict

East Timor 625.1 Women Rally to Promote Peace in Colombia 665.2 Women’s Peace Activism Brought on Pivotal

Changes in Sierra Leone 685.3 Women’s Refugee NGOs Lose Power in Post-Conflict

Guatemala 705.4 Rwandan Women Move from Informal to Formal

Politics 736.1 Taking Constitutional Steps in Post-Conflict

Afghanistan 816.2 Centers Provide Legal Advice to Women in

Southeastern Europe 826.3 CEDAW Gender Balances Uganda’s Constitution 836.4 Inclusive Legislation Is Drafted in Cambodia

and Eritrea 857.1 Women Faced Discrimination in Land

Transfer Program 947.2 Women’s Access to Land Remains an Issue in

Rwanda 967.3 Women’s Post-Conflict Participation in Formal

Employment Varies 987.4 Women Face a Post-Conflict Struggle for Land Access

and Ownership 1027.5 Women’s Organizations Are Revived in Rwanda 1037.6 Women Can Benefit from Microcredit Programs 105

contents ix

7.7 Vocational Training Programs for Women AreFound Lacking 106

7.8 Gender Analysis Identifies Measures to IncreaseFemale Participation 109

8.1 Community Education Fills the Schooling Gapduring Conflict 116

8.2 Home-Schooling Girls in Afghanistan AddressesEducational Needs 119

9.1 CDD in the West Bank and Gaza Embraces Women 1269.2 Women Gain Equal Representation on Local Councils

in Timor-Leste 127

table

10.1 Policy Options 135

x contents

Preface

This review is the product of a collaborative effort between theConflict Research Unit of the Netherlands Institute of InternationalRelations, “Clingendael,” and the World Bank’s Conflict Preventionand Reconstruction Unit. The Social Development Team in the Bank’sAfrica Region supported this publication. The review fills an impor-tant gap in the gender, conflict, and development nexus. Althoughmuch has been written in academic and policy circles on gender, onconflict, and on the impact of conflict on women, there has been rela-tively little effort to systematically and comprehensively explore thelinks with development, particularly in terms of mainstreaming genderin the activities of agencies such as the World Bank, which are sup-porting countries that are transitioning from conflict to longer-termdevelopment.

It has long been argued and accepted that post-conflict reconstruc-tion should not merely recreate past failed structures and systems.Without minimizing the complexities involved, it is clear that countriesemerging from the traumatic experience of violent conflict—and thedevelopment actors that support them—have an opportunity to dothings differently as they set about reversing the damage caused by warand rebuilding more inclusive, accountable, and cohesive societies.Although the window of opportunity is often brief and the reconstruc-tion and transformation invariably a difficult and long-term undertak-ing, ushering in social change and a more equitable developmentprocess must start as soon as the guns are silenced. Gender exclusionundermines the effectiveness of development efforts, even more so incountries that must first rebuild before embarking on the path of sus-tainable development. Yet the issue of how to engender post-conflictreconstruction has tended to remain on the margins of most policy

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discussions and donor reconstruction efforts. Part of this marginaliza-tion comes from a focus and discourse that sees women primarily asarmed conflict victims and not as actors in the conflict, peace, and re-construction processes. Part also comes from relegating the dialogueon gender imbalances to the advocacy domain, away from that of pol-icy. Without practical policy suggestions on how to address gender inpost-conflict reconstruction, opportunities are often missed to increasegender inclusion in the long run. Women have an enormous potentialto contribute as empowered actors in the reconstruction and develop-ment process.

This review aims to present a more nuanced understanding of gen-der dynamics in countries that are affected by conflict and, above all,to offer practical policy options that development agencies such as theWorld Bank can consider in the post-conflict reconstruction and de-velopment context. The emphasis is on practical experiences, usefulexamples, and policy recommendations, which the authors have dis-tilled from an exhaustive literature review, and includes some emerg-ing lessons from the Bank’s experience. The review also identifies someimportant research and analytical gaps. It is hoped that this reviewwill challenge academic and policy researchers to help deepen our un-derstanding of how the international community can effectively sup-port more gender-balanced development in conflict-affected countries.

Steen Lau JorgensenDirectorSocial Development Department

xii preface

Acknowledgments

As part of the quality assurance procedures of Clingendael’s Con-flict Research Unit, the authors submitted drafts of this study to a re-view panel for comments and suggestions. The panel included:Dr. Dorothea Hilhorst, Disaster Studies, Wageningen University;Dr. Dubravka Zarkov, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague; andMs. Sonja Zimmermann, a gender and development consultant. TheWorld Bank’s Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction (CPR) Unit anda number of Bank staff also provided feedback on various drafts. Theauthors thank the panel members, the CPR Unit, and other Bank staff,(especially Juana Brachet, Florian Fichtel, and Sean Bradley), and con-sulting editor, Dina Towbin, for their useful suggestions, inputs, andedits. The authors have tried to take all observations, suggestions, andcriticisms into consideration in the final report. All errors and omis-sions are the authors’ own.

xiii

About the Authors

Tsjeard Bouta is a research fellow at the Netherlands Institute of In-ternational Relations, Clingendael, Conflict Research Unit. He is a de-velopment sociologist who specializes in conflict studies, with a specialresearch interest in gender and conflict, gender and disarmament, de-mobilization and reintegration, and democratic governance of the se-curity sector. He was recently involved in research projects on these is-sues for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the NetherlandsMinistry of Social Affairs and Employment, and Dutch developmentorganizations. His recent publications include: The Role of SNV(Dutch Development Agency) in Developing Countries in InternalArmed Conflict, co-authored with Georg Frerks (2001); Women’sRole in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Post-ConflictReconstruction: Literature Review and Institutional Analysis, co-authored and co-edited with Georg Frerks (2002); and EnhancingDemocratic Governance of the Security Sector: An InstitutionalAssessment Framework, co-authored with Nicolle Ball and Luc van deGoor (2003). He can be reached at: tbouta@clingendael.nl.

Georg Frerks is a rural sociologist with a Ph.D. from Wageningen Uni-versity in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, Dr. Frerks served in several positions at headquarters andabroad. Most recently, he was an evaluator of Dutch internationalpolicies and a senior policy advisor to the Ministry’s Policy PlanningUnit. He is currently head of the Clingendael Conflict Research Unit.He also holds a Special Chair on Conflict Prevention and ConflictManagement at Utrecht University and is a professor of disaster stud-ies at Wageningen University’s Rural Development Sociology Group.His research interests and publications include: “Evaluation ofHumanitarian Assistance in Emergency Situations” (Working Paper

xv

No. 56, New Issues in Refugee Research), co-authored with DorotheaHilhorst (2002); Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development, andPeople, co-edited with Greg Bankoff, and Dorothea Hilhorst (2003);and “Engendering Peace and Conflict” in Cannons and Canons:Clingendael Views of Global and Regional Politics, eds. A. vanStaden, J. Rood, and H. Labohm, co-authored with Tsjeard Bouta(2003). He can be reached at: gfrerks@clingendael.nl.

Ian Bannon is an economist with an extensive World Bank career, hav-ing worked in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as in theBank’s Policy Research Group. In his last assignment he was the leadeconomist for Central America; he worked on post-conflict recon-struction in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Since October2001, he has been the World Bank’s CPR Unit manager in the SocialDevelopment Department of the Environmentally and Socially Sus-tainable Development Network. His policy and research interests in-clude poverty, youth, gender, education, and mental health, especiallyas they relate to conflict and development. His recent publications in-clude: “Central America: Education Reform in a Post-Conflict Setting:Opportunities and Challenges,” (CPR Working Paper No. 4), co-authored with J. Marques (2003); Natural Resources and ViolentConflict: Options and Actions, co-authored and co-edited with PaulCollier (2003); and The Role of the World Bank in Conflict andDevelopment: An Evolving Agenda (2004). He can be reached at:ibannon@worldbank.org.

xvi about the authors

Abbreviations

BICC Bonn International Center for ConversionCDD Community-driven developmentCEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against WomenCPR Conflict Prevention and ReconstructionCSO Civil society organizationDAC Development Assistance Committee (OECD)DDR Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegrationDRC Democratic Republic of CongoFAO Food and Agriculture Organization FMLN Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front

(El Salvador)FRP Feeder Roads Program (Mozambique)GBV Gender-based and sexual violenceGTF Gender Task ForceGTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische

ZusammenarbeitHIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunity

Deficiency SyndromeICC International Criminal Court ICG International Crisis GroupICRC International Committee of the Red CrossICTR International Criminal Tribunal for RwandaICTY International Criminal Tribunal for Former

YugoslaviaIDEA (International) Institute for Democracy and

Electoral AssistanceIDP Internally displaced person

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IHL International Humanitarian Law ILO International Labor OrganizationIOM International Office for MigrationIRC International Rescue CommitteeISS Institute for Security StudiesKDP Kecamatan Development Project (Indonesia)KWI Kosovo Women’s InitiativeLTTE Liberation Tigers of Tamil EelamNGO Nongovernmental organizationNUPI Norwegian Institute of International AffairsOECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

DevelopmentOHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human RightsOSCE Organization for Security and Economic

Cooperation in EuropePRIO/Uppsala International Peace Research Institute of Oslo,

Norway, and the University of Uppsala, SwedenRUF Revolutionary United Front (Sierra Leone)SIDA Swedish International Development AgencySNV Dutch Development AgencySTD Sexually transmitted diseaseSP GTF Gender Task Force of the Stability Pact for

Southeastern EuropeUN United NationsUNCHS UN Center for Human SettlementsUNDDA UN Department for Disarmament AffairsUNDESA UN Department of Economic and Social AffairsUNDG UN Development GroupUNDP UN Development ProgrammeUNESC UN Economic and Social CouncilUNFPA UN Fund for Population ActivitiesUNHCR UN High Commissioner for RefugeesUNICEF UN Children’s FundUNIFEM UN Development Fund for WomenUNMIK UN Mission in KosovoUNSC UN Security CouncilUNSG UN Secretary-GeneralUNTAC UN Transitional Authority in CambodiaUSAID United States Agency for International DevelopmentWCRWC Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and

ChildrenWHO World Health OrganizationWSP War-Torn Societies Project

xviii abbreviations

Executive Summary

Introduction

This review addresses the gender dimensions of intrastate conflict.It is organized around eight areas or themes that are related to theWorld Bank’s agenda on gender, conflict, and development: (i) genderand warfare; (ii) gender and sexual violence; (iii) gender and formalpeace processes; (iv) gender and informal peace processes; (v) genderand the post-conflict legal framework; (vi) gender and work; (vii) gen-der and rehabilitating social services; and (viii) gender and commu-nity-driven development. For each theme, the authors have analyzedthe gender-specific roles of women and men before, during, and afterconflict, the gender role changes throughout conflict, the developmentchallenges in sustaining positive gender role changes and mitigatingnegative effects, and the policy options for addressing these genderroles, dynamics, and challenges. The suggested policy options are in-tended to be gender- as well as conflict-sensitive, and ideally shouldcontribute to more equal gender relations. The relevance and applica-bility of the policy options are identified and key considerationsoutlined that the Bank would need to take into account in assessingpolicy options. Finally, further research areas are suggested on the gen-der, conflict, and development nexus.

This review is based on the authors’ desk study of more than 230secondary resources. Because of the nature of the sources consulted,the study is slightly biased toward the post-conflict phase and women’sroles relative to men’s, and toward qualitative rather than quantitativeor comparative data that would allow for generalized conclusions.Nevertheless, the authors believe that the reviewed material provides asufficient basis for the analysis, options, and recommendations.

xix

Gender and Warfare

Women play many roles in warfare. They can be combatants—fightingin recognized military institutions (such as regular armies) and withnonstate military actors (such as guerrilla forces)—and/or work ascooks, porters, administrators, spies, partners, and sex slaves. Womenalso support warfare as civilians, for example, by broadcasting hatespeech and instilling hatred of enemy groups in new generations, thuscontributing to the militarization of men and society. In addition,women can be male soldier supporters or their dependents. Many ab-ducted women are among the dependents; they have been forced tomarry or become an army commander’s partner. In practice, womenusually combine their roles; they are fighters, cooks, and mothers con-currently.

One of the gender-specific roles in warfare relates to motives forjoining the army. Whereas women and men can become soldiers forsimilar reasons, many women do so to obtain more rights and genderequality. They are also deliberately recruited to add legitimacy or sym-bolic power to the war effort. However, many women, like numerousmen and boys, are forced to join against their will, abducted into com-bat, or forced to become sexual and domestic slaves.

A major change in gender relations is the tendency toward moreequal gender relations in fighting forces as compared to the pre- andpost-conflict phases. While gender roles may be more equal in armies,where women benefit from new opportunities, this is generally morethan offset by negative effects such as sexual violence.

A key development challenge is to acknowledge both women’s andmen’s participation in armies and to provide assistance to all womenthat joined the armies—with or without weapons. This assistanceshould not be provided exclusively through disarmament, demobiliza-tion, and reintegration (DDR) programs. Rather the implementationof reintegration activities should be in parallel with disarmament anddemobilization activities—to avoid women’s self-demobilization.

Suggested policy options for security and reintegration agencies are:to recast the definition of female combatants in such a way that it in-cludes women who are part of (ir)regular armies in any capacity; tomake extra efforts to track and identify women in armies so they areincluded in post-conflict assistance programs; to target women in sup-port roles and/or abducted women separately from their husbands andmale counterparts; and to inform female ex-soldiers of their legalrights and how to access DDR programs.

xx executive summary

Rehabilitation agencies should anticipate the different economic,social, and psychological needs and opportunities of female ex-soldiers. Psychological support needs should consider issues that havea greater impact on women, their more difficult social reintegration,and their exposure to gender-based and sexual violence in and afterconflict.

Gender-Based and Sexual Violence

Gender-based and sexual violence (GBV) is defined in this book asphysical, sexual, and psychological violence against both women andmen that occurs in the family and the community and is perpetrated orcondoned by the state. In conflict situations, GBV is committedagainst civilians and soldiers. It is not an accidental side effect of war,but a crime against the individual and an act of aggression against theentire community or nation.

Regarding gender-specific roles related to GBV, women are morevulnerable to GBV than men because of prevailing oppressive genderrelations, particularly in conflict situations. The trafficking in andsexual exploitation of human beings, particularly of women, tendsto increase in conflict situations. Many women engage in prostitu-tion to survive conflict; sex also becomes a form of bargainingpower. Widespread GBV during conflict increases the spread of sex-ually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as HIV/AIDS, especiallyamong women.

One of the changes in GBV relates to its intensity during conflict.GBV increases and often becomes an accepted practice during conflictand in the post-conflict phase. With the transition from conflict topeace, a shift in GBV seems to take place from the public to the privatedomain through an increase in domestic violence.

A major development challenge is to support the protection and re-covery of GBV survivors. This could best be done via a multidimen-sional approach that actively involves GBV survivors, both male andfemale, their communities, the health sector, social services, and thelegal and security sectors.

Key GBV policy options are to target both men and women and toraise awareness to ensure that GBV in conflict is addressed in post-conflict reconstruction. Other options are to strengthen both medicalassistance for GBV survivors and local capacity to provide psycholog-ical counseling to all the actors involved, while assessing its potentiallydifferent impacts on female and male GBV survivors. Agencies should

executive summary xxi

ensure that women and men have similar protection against GBV, thesame information on and access to GBV medical services, and areassisted by a same-sex health worker (and translator) for their medicalexamination. They should encourage the legal protection of womenand men against GBV through existing laws and newly adopted legis-lation and build institutional capacity among the police, judiciary,border guards, and social services.

Gender and Formal Peace Processes

Most political institutions in conflict and nonconflict societies tend toperpetuate an exclusionary attitude and culture toward women. As aresult, compared to men relatively few women become involved in for-mal peace processes during and after conflict. Beyond this quantitativedifference, there is a qualitative difference; women are likely to makea different contribution to the peace process. Their increased partici-pation may generate wider public support for peace accords.

Regarding gender-role changes, additional analysis is needed to de-termine whether women’s participation in formal political processesincreases during conflict. Since prevailing social structures and genderdivisions tend to accompany the return of peace, many women have toretreat from political and public life. However, this dip in female par-ticipation may be temporary and is often reversed due to external pres-sure to establish democratic systems and open political space forwomen.

The key development challenge is to use the post-conflict momen-tum to focus attention on gender-equality issues and to increase the in-volvement of women and other marginalized groups in the peaceprocess.

To incorporate gender equality into peace accords, policy optionsinclude: organizing training and information-sharing events for politi-cians or those involved in the peace talks; developing wider processesof political consultation or representation, for example, with women’sorganizations; increasing the number of female politicians by trainingwomen to run for political office; fostering discussions within publicand political bodies about women’s involvement; setting legislative orparty quotas to ensure a minimum number of female politicians; andestablishing indicators to assess the influence of female and malepoliticians on political outcomes and on the political culture andprocess.

xxii executive summary

Gender, Informal Peace Processes, andRebuilding Civil Society

Informal peace processes are usually complementary to formal peaceprocesses, but are not limited to them. The main gender difference isthat more women than men tend to become active in informalprocesses.

An important gender-role change is that conflict offers manywomen the opportunity to enter informal peace processes. Many indi-vidual women and women’s civil society organizations (CSOs) in con-flict have assumed the roles and tasks of public institutions, under-taken relief work, channeled international assistance to recipients,lobbied to incorporate rights and specific provisions in peace accords,and encouraged women to participate in elections. The key develop-ment challenge is to support these women and women’s CSOs (alsomen and men’s CSOs), not only during but also after conflict. Theycan form the foundation for a strong and more inclusive civil and po-litical post-conflict society, which is essential to effective, sustainable,and more inclusive reconstruction and development efforts.

Policy options include: strengthening the capacity of individualwomen and women’s CSOs to bridge the gap between informal andformal peace processes; encouraging and training men and women ininformal peace processes to make the shift toward formal processes;and involving individual women and women’s CSOs actively in post-conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction. Community-driven recon-struction approaches can provide a unique opportunity to engagelocal women and men in kick-starting the local reconstruction processand helping to bridge the divide between crisis and development. In-ternational agencies can also assist in restructuring, professionalizing,and providing longer-term support to women’s CSOs.

Gender-Sensitizing the Post-Conflict Legal Framework

Conflict societies often have an opportunity to undergo a transforma-tion in the security, political, and socioeconomic realms that is usuallyaccompanied by constitutional and legal reforms. From a gender per-spective, these reforms are the moment to enshrine gender-equality is-sues and other basic human rights in the constitution and to formalizewomen’s and men’s democratic representation and participation in alldecisionmaking structures of the government and society at large.Furthermore, the transition period provides the momentum to restore

executive summary xxiii

justice and accountability mechanisms and to reestablish the rule oflaw. In this context, judicial mechanisms need to focus on gender-specific issues such as reparations and rehabilitation policies, compen-sation for human rights violations, and GBV issues, such as rape andother forms of sexual violence.

Key challenges include extending gender equality provisions tononstatutory and customary law, ensuring that effective implementa-tion mechanisms are developed, and building judicial mechanisms thatdo not marginalize women’s experiences and do not consider womenonly as victims, but also as perpetrators of violence in conflict settings.

Supporting governments—through awareness-raising and informa-tion campaigns—to ratify, respect, and implement relevant interna-tional standards would be a first policy option to ensure women’s andmen’s rights in conflict situations. Other options include developingand enforcing gender-sensitive legislation at the national level, inform-ing and training women and men on their rights, and encouraging thejudiciary to enforce gender-sensitive laws.

With regard to judicial mechanisms, a central policy option is toencourage them to acknowledge, condemn, and prosecute all crimescommitted by women and men against women and men in conflictsituations.

Gender and Work: Creating Equal LaborMarket Opportunities

The scope of gender and work covers the relationship between genderand agricultural work, informal urban work, and formal urban work.Regarding gender-specific differences and gender role changes in rela-tion to work during conflict, many women take on tasks that theirhusbands or other male relatives had done previously. At the sametime, displacement and post-conflict unemployment undermine men’ssense of identity as providers, which, in turn, often translates into anti-social behavior and violence directed at women. In the agriculturalsector, women may take over responsibility for working the land, car-ing for livestock, trading, or carrying out wage labor outside thehome. The key problem is that women are often denied access to,owning, and inheriting productive resources in their own names. Inurban areas, a kind of “feminization” of the informal sector takes placeduring conflict. Women may regard work in the informal sector as away of liberation and empowerment or as a means of exploitation andsurvival. Regarding the formal sector, key gender differences relate tounequal promotion opportunities, remuneration, rights, and so on for

xxiv executive summary

women and men. Yet the net effect during or after conflict is not clearas women are both discouraged and encouraged to take up formal em-ployment.

The major development challenge is to take advantage of and assistin sustaining positive gender role changes regarding work as a resultof conflict by designing economic assistance programs that build onnewly acquired skills and encouraging women and men to continue intheir new activities.

One important contribution would be to try to reduce women’s do-mestic and reproductive burdens, so that women who want to earn aliving outside the home could do so. This should go hand-in-handwith efforts to reform gender-biased labor laws and raise awareness ongender equality issues in the workplace. In relation to informal urbanemployment, microcredit schemes have brought many women much-needed relief, but their economic sustainability and empowerment po-tential are often limited, so they should be complemented by otherforms of support. Vocational training programs can be useful if theyare based on sound market research and gender analysis and adaptedto women’s and men’s different skills and needs. The formal sectorsthat traditionally employ women can be an important source of em-ployment, but women can also be supported to apply new skills andexperience gained during conflict. Greater labor equality can also helpover the long run.

Gender and Rehabilitating Social Services

In most conflict situations, gender-specific roles dictate that womenbecome the primary home providers of health care and education.While women’s regular household tasks become more complex duringconflict, they often also become responsible for providing health careto ill, old, and injured family and community members. In addition,some women also provide childcare and home schooling for their chil-dren during conflict. On the one hand, this key gender role changeconsiderably increases women’s burden of dependency, but it may alsostrengthen women’s capacities and organizational capabilities, induc-ing them to take on more public roles during or after conflict.

From a development perspective, the first key challenge is to try tokeep health and education facilities functioning during conflict; thepost-conflict challenge is to restore and reshift these services from theprivate to the public domain quickly. Another challenge is to furthergender-sensitize post-conflict education and health services.

executive summary xxv

Although conflict’s overall impact on education systems is unam-biguously negative, the post-conflict period presents a good opportu-nity to gender-sensitize the education system. This window of oppor-tunity, however, tends to be brief as education systems can recoververy quickly, and vested interests and pre-conflict social norms are alsoquickly reestablished.

Reshifting education and health care services in a post-conflict soci-ety may take a long time. One policy option for this transformationphase is to start changing the perception that men’s and particularlywomen’s health and education work are a natural extension of domes-tic work and not a professional occupation. Another policy option is tosupport community- and home-based schooling and health care facili-ties, where usually many women are involved, as a first step toward re-constructing formal systems. Further options can help gender-sensitizehealth systems through reproductive health care and psychological as-sistance to conflict survivors, by treating war-induced handicaps anddisabilities, GBV, and other post-conflict traumatic disorders, and byproviding STD and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. To gender-sensitize education, agencies could pay more attention to adult educa-tion, particularly for women, and to girls’ high dropout rates fromschool during and after conflict. Finally, they could support the devel-opment of nondiscriminatory education and training.

Gender and Community-Driven Development

Rebuilding social capital and cohesion are deeply gendered processes,even though they are still described in a nongendered manner. Post-conflict development efforts increasingly emphasize participatory andcommunity-driven development processes to strengthen social cohe-sion and build bridging social capital. A major potential change is thatthe adoption of community-driven approaches to post-conflict recon-struction can encourage more gender-balanced representation in localdecisionmaking processes and, if sustained, provide a springboard forgreater women’s empowerment and involvement in broader politicalprocesses.

A key development challenge is to address factors that constrainwomen’s participation in local community development efforts andtheir representation in decisionmaking structures and processes.Policy options include adopting community-based approaches inreconstruction, mobilizing the support of men and the communityto support women’s participation, investing in training community

xxvi executive summary

leaders and gender facilitators, adapting timing and logistics towomen’s needs, and ensuring strong monitoring and evaluation.

Policy Options

Policy options primarily relate to the Bank’s mandate and agenda, butthey may be used by other agencies working in the post-conflict re-construction and development nexus. The options focus on longer-term development challenges and explicitly go beyond the notion ofwomen and men as only conflict victims. While policy options are of-fered to try to ensure and sustain more balanced gender relations inconflict-affected societies, there is no substitute for context-specificanalysis—for an assessment of reality on the ground and the country-specific scope for policy reforms and options.

To enhance implementation of the suggested policy options, a num-ber of intra-organizational requirements are outlined that an institu-tion such as the World Bank should consider. They relate to the needto develop concrete gender and armed conflict policies, to translatethese policies into action plans and benchmarks, to monitor and eval-uate gender- and conflict-related activities to assess their impact ongender roles and relationships in conflict, to sensitize and train staff,and to incorporate gender and conflict issues into existing programs,projects, tools, and instruments. Four other relevant issues are alsodiscussed: objectives to be set, timing of interventions, interventions’target groups, and other challenges.

Issues for Further Analysis in Gender, Conflict,and Development

Despite increased attention to the gender, conflict, and developmentnexus, major analytical gaps remain. As a first conceptual point, amore comprehensive gender focus needs to be adopted beyond reduc-tionist perspectives on women’s roles. As a second conceptual point,there is the need for engendering conflict analysis; most analytical andpolicy models, approaches, tools, instruments, and conflict checklistslack a gender-specific theoretical and operational basis. This applies tothe field of early warning and early response, conflict prevention, con-flict monitoring, and the evaluation of conflict-related policies as wellas the emerging fields of conflict analysis and Peace and Conflict Im-pact Assessments. Incorporating a gender perspective and suggestingmodifications, where appropriate, should be considered.

executive summary xxvii

Further specific analysis is required on: certain gender role changes;the policy implications of the concepts of masculinity and feminin-ity; the link between masculinity and violence; the theme of child sol-diers; the relative importance of gender as compared to other identitymarkers in shaping women’s and men’s roles and relationships in con-flict-affected areas; the gender dimensions of macroeconomic policies;the ways to link existing insights in the fields of gender, conflict, anddevelopment cooperation; the gender dimensions of the concepts ofsocial capital and social cohesion; and on the need for more transfor-mative approaches that can fundamentally alter the balance of powerin gender relations as societies rebuild after conflict.

xxviii executive summary

chapter 1

Introduction

THIS REVIEW LARGELY FOCUSES on areas that are related to the WorldBank’s agenda on gender, conflict, and development. While the Bankmay not be active in all the areas that the review covers, it often plays aleading role in post-conflict reconstruction, and these are areas thatneed to be taken into account in the design and implementation of de-velopment strategies in conflict-affected countries. The review pays noor little attention to issues outside the Bank’s mandate, such as human-itarian aid, disarmament, and control of small arms. However, it doesinclude issues that may not be directly linked to the Bank’s mandate,such as political reforms and peace negotiations, but which are clearlyrelated to areas broadly within the Bank’s mandate, such as institutionalreform, governance, and the rule of law. They are also highly relevantareas in terms of a more comprehensive approach to post-conflict re-construction, including the need to ensure citizen security and protec-tion, especially that of women, against post-conflict violence. Theseissues should inform the Bank’s development efforts in post-conflictcountries.

This review is based on secondary material, including academic andpolicy documents. Although the authors examined more than 230sources, there may be other important material that could have con-tributed to the study. Nonetheless, the authors believe that the review cov-ers the major trends in contemporary literature. The authors selected thematerial to be reviewed based on the following criteria. Sources had to:

• Directly focus on the gender, conflict, and development nexus,with only limited reference to numerous other sources on con-flict and feminist studies;1

• Be written in English, almost exclusively;• Be written in the last five years in view of the field’s dynamic and

evolving nature; and• Be relevant in terms of development policy formulation or

implementation.

1

Objectives and Focus

In the mid-1990s, the gender dimensions of peace and conflict startedto appear on international policy agendas. Two milestones were theBeijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and UnitedNations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peaceand Security (UN Security Council 2000). Both stressed the impor-tance of women’s equal participation and their full involvement in themaintenance and promotion of peace and security, as well as the needto increase women’s role in decision-making in conflict prevention andresolution, and post-conflict reconstruction.2 Although it is now wellaccepted that women and men are affected by and respond to conflictdifferently, and that gender relations change substantially as a result ofconflict, development actors have had difficulty translating this infor-mation into practical policies and sustaining positive changes in gen-der roles and relationships in the post-conflict period. Few agenciesworking in conflict address comprehensively and systematicallyconflict’s gender dimensions. Agencies tend to concentrate on the post-conflict phase and give less attention to gender relations before andduring conflict. Furthermore, many organizations tend to focus onlyon certain roles of women and men in conflict, while some tend tooversimplify reality, for example, by describing men in a stereotypicalway as aggressors and women as peacemakers. Similarly, women’s roleas victims is often emphasized at the expense of other roles they canand do play. Many agencies do not fully recognize the multifacetedand dynamic roles of women and men in conflict situations.

This review depicts women’s and men’s roles in conflict, analyzesdifferences and changes in these roles and ensuing gender relations,and assesses the sustainability of such changes. The challenges of thesedifferences and changes for development are outlined. Policy optionsare provided for a development agency such as the World Bank to ad-dress these gender roles, dynamics, and challenges. Suggested policyoptions are intended to be gender- as well as conflict-sensitive, andideally should contribute to more equal gender relations. The reviewcloses with suggested areas for further research.

Terminology and Concepts

While the review does not enter into definitional or academic debateson major concepts, such as intrastate conflict, gender, gender equality,and mainstreaming, the authors have indicated how key terms areused in this review.

2 gender, conflict, and development

The study’s primary focus is on intrastate conflict, less so on inter-state conflict, although the latter may generate lessons as it alsoimpacts on gender relations. Intrastate conflict was selected based onthe World Bank CPR Unit’s focus areas and reflects the fact that mostconflicts over the last 15 years can be classified as intrastate conflicts.Intrastate conflict does not concern a (declared) war between two dif-ferent states, but is characterized by the fact that the conflict’s majorcauses and protagonists can be found mainly within a particular soci-ety. Yet it should be underlined that in terms of support, funding, andattempts to deal with it, intrastate conflict usually involves external ac-tors. Therefore, the term is misleading to some degree. Except for theuse of violence per se, some form of organized combat and a plannedsystematic strategy further characterize intrastate conflict. Intrastateconflict excludes spontaneous uprisings of short duration, unique orsingular skirmishes such as sporadic riots and coups d’état, or crime.

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles ascribed to womenand men, as opposed to biological and physical characteristics. Genderroles vary according to socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts,and are affected by other factors, including age, class, and ethnicity.Gender roles are learned and negotiated, or contested. They are there-fore changeable. Besides differences in roles between women and men,roles among women and men differ as well, while both women andmen may also combine different roles individually over time or evensimultaneously. Although women are seen as victims in general in con-flict situations, they are often mothers, breadwinners, combatants, orpeace activists as well. In addition, making gender synonymous withthe positions and roles of women and men still constitutes an ex-tremely limiting and reductionist gender view. As Dubravka Zarkovwrote in a communication to the authors:

Gender is an organizing principle of social life that affects different lev-els of social reality, not only individual people. The level of individual(subjective) identities (of which we accept, or resist and negotiate iden-tification with specific notions of femininity and masculinity) is only oneof the levels on which gender operates. This is also the level in whichindividuals assume (or refuse or negotiate) specific gender roles. Nar-rowing the meaning of gender to individual women and men and theirgender roles excludes other levels on which gender operates: the level ofinstitutions and organizations producing specific masculinities and fem-ininities, and at the same time being the product of gender; the level ofideology and doctrine, with their (gendered) values and norms; finally,the symbolic level (not only female and male bodies as symbols ofnations and states, or victims or heroes, but also meanings that are—atfirst sight—not seen as gender, such as sovereignty). Furthermore,processes are gendered (based on specific gendered assumptions) and

introduction 3

they gender reality and so does development. This gendered or gender-ing terminology actually indicates that gender does not exist outsideother social relations of power.

In this connection, gender relations cut across other social factors andprocesses based on, for example, class, age, and ethnicity, each of whichmay have gendered qualities. The authors recognize the multi-layeredand interconnected nature of gender and gendering levels. However,most of the literature reviewed was restricted to roles and individualidentities. Only in rare cases were institutional, ideological, and sym-bolic levels touched on or how processes tend to ‘gender reality’discussed.3 Notwithstanding the relevance of those issues, the authorscould only conclude that further work on them is needed. In practice,this means that in this study, analysis was restricted by necessity mainlyto the level of gender roles, gender relationships, and their dynamicswith an unavoidable emphasis on women, as explained below.

The review tries to take a dynamic perspective. It aims to under-stand the interplay between conflict processes and gender roles byfocusing on the resulting changes. Although conflict and gender rela-tions mutually reinforce each other—gender roles adapt individuals inwar roles, and war roles provide the context within which individualsare socialized into gender roles (Goldstein 2001)—this review empha-sizes how women and men acquire and consolidate new identities androles in conflict situations.

Most literature studied for this review tended to focus only onwomen in conflict, even though references often claim to present abroader gender focus. This tendency is pervasive and affects theauthors’ ability to present a balanced and truly gendered analysis.4

There is, of course, literature dealing with nonspecified, presumablymale, actors in conflict, but these are not approached in a gender-specific way, and therefore do not add to the understanding of the prob-lem set out in this report. Consequently, the review has not generated asmuch information on men as on women in conflict. This underminespart of the first study objective, namely, to depict men’s key roles andthe nature of and changes in gender relationships. Similarly, to a certaindegree this affects the comprehensive nature of the suggested policy im-plications and policy options. These issues point to the need to conductfurther systematic studies on men and gender relations in conflict.

The same is obviously true for masculinities, which is understoodas the social and historical construction of male gender. In this con-nection, the role of masculinized institutions (the army, businesses,and the bureaucracy—where masculine traits are prized5) requires at-tention in the same manner as the earlier-mentioned institutionalizedforms of gender. To the degree that the authors have come across

4 gender, conflict, and development

relevant references, these were included in the review. Most of theliterature encountered on this topic had little direct policy focus.

Gender equality relates to the equal rights, responsibilities, and op-portunities of women, men, girls, and boys. It is often regarded as ahuman rights issue and considered a precondition for and indicationof sustainable, people-centered development. A recent World Bank(2001b) report distinguishes equality under the law, equality ofopportunity (equality of rewards for work and equality in access tohuman capital and other productive resources that enable opportu-nity), and equality of voice (the ability to influence and contribute tothe development process). It is likely that without a clear gender equal-ity focus, interventions will fail to capitalize on opportunities todecrease disparities between women and men and to build on theirpotential to sustain peace and development.

Gender mainstreaming is seen as the process of assessing the impli-cations for women and men of any planned action, including legisla-tion, policies, or programs in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategyfor making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an in-tegral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring, and eval-uation of policies and programs in all political, economic, and societalspheres, so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is notperpetuated [UN Economic and Social Council (UNESC) 1997]. Thisusually involves considering special measures to improve women’saccess to decisionmaking, services, and resources.

Finally, women and men are regarded as social actors. An actor ap-proach takes as its departure point the differentiated interests, charac-teristics, and activities of the individuals involved. Thus, these operateon the basis of multiple and contested realities and not as a homoge-neous group. An actor orientation recognizes the centrality of humanagency as actively involved in the production and reproduction of thesocial world.6 It underlines how interests, knowledge, and power arecontested and negotiated in everyday practice. Actors accord meaningto and interpret what happens, thus shaping their own responses onthe basis of their understanding, capacities, and resources. While onthe one hand they may be forced by the conditions of conflict intocertain positions, on the other hand, they will try to deliberatelychange their roles according to their own agendas and strategies. It isself-evident that the issue of gender plays an important role in such aperspective. Actor orientation also implies a particular understandingof livelihoods and development interventions as “materialized and so-cially constructed through the interplay, contestation and negotiationof values and interests within specific domains and arenas of socialaction” (Long 1997). It juxtaposes mechanistic ideas about linear

introduction 5

policy implementation by focusing on the “reinterpretation or trans-formation of policy during the implementation process, such thatthere is in fact no straight line from policy to outcomes” (Long andvan der Ploeg 1989). An actor orientation’s strength is that it avoidsviewing women and men as “structural or cultural dopes” and tries tosee how individuals create room for maneuver. Like feminist analysesof power, the actor approach tries to avoid associating women withvictimization and vulnerability. Overemphasizing this approach, how-ever, could lead to a failure to see how gender relations are institu-tionalized and embedded in persistent cultural, religious, legal, andother structures. According to Dubravka Zarkov, the actor approachmay risk an “individualization” of power relations that dwells insocial structures, values, ideologies, and relations through an assump-tion of a choice, where this choice does not exist effectively.

The Bank’s Approach to Gender and Conflict

Since the 1980s, the World Bank has made progress in integrating gen-der issues into country work and lending. Several organizationalchanges were made to facilitate greater attention to gender and devel-opment issues, including issuing an Operational Policy on the genderdimension of development in 1994, and creating a Gender and Devel-opment Board in 1997. Recognizing the need to find more effectiveways to integrate gender-responsive actions into the Bank’s develop-ment assistance, in September 2001, the Board of Executive Directorsendorsed a mainstreaming gender strategy (World Bank 2002). TheWorld Bank Policy Research Report that preceded the mainstreamingstrategy (World Bank 2001b) argues that on one level, poverty exacer-bates gender disparities, while on another level gender inequalities hin-der development. A central message is that ignoring gender disparitiescomes at great cost—to people’s well-being and to countries’ ability togrow sustainably, to govern effectively, and thus to reduce poverty.The report argues for a three-part strategy to promote gender equality:

• Reform institutions to establish equal rights and opportunitiesfor women and men;

• Foster economic development to strengthen incentives for moreequal resources and participation; and

• Take active measures to redress persistent disparities in commandover resources and political voice.

Although the Bank’s mainstreaming gender strategy in its workpresents a comprehensive set of actions and recommendations, it doesnot address the particular challenges (and opportunities) posed by

6 gender, conflict, and development

countries that are affected by conflict or are embarking on donor-supported post-conflict reconstruction processes.

The adoption of a more systematic and comprehensive approach toconflict and development has been a more recent development in theWorld Bank. Following experiences in the West Bank and Gaza and inBosnia and Herzegovina, in 1997, the Bank defined its approach topost-conflict reconstruction and created a small Post-Conflict Unit.However, in the late 1990s, the Bank sought to redefine its conflict rolemore comprehensively, from one focused on physical reconstructionto one that emphasized greater sensitivity to conflict in Bank activities.The approach was reflected in a new Operational Policy on develop-ment cooperation and conflict (World Bank 2001, 2001a) that theBoard of Executive Directors approved in January 2001; to signal thischange in approach, the Post-Conflict Unit was renamed the ConflictPrevention and Reconstruction Unit (CPR 2004c). As the Bank at-tempted to mainstream greater sensitivity to conflict in its work, it be-came clear that gender was an important missing dimension and didnot figure systematically in its conflict work; conversely, rarely if at alldid conflict figure in the gender mainstreaming agenda. This reviewaims to begin to fill this important gap.

Limitations

The review was subject to a number of limitations:

• It could not cover all possibly relevant literature in view ofresource constraints.

• The literature reviewed showed a certain bias in that it tended tobe based on the experiences of agencies involved in conflict set-tings. This was compounded by the predominance of reportsemanating from larger multilateral agencies and internationalnongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as compared to grass-roots civil society organizations (CSOs). The authors feel thatmore in-depth material might have been available at the fieldlevel, but they were not in a position to interview women andmen directly regarding their experiences. The Panos oral testi-mony project and the resulting book, Arms to Fight, Arms toProtect, however, provides the testimony of 85 women and cancomplement the policy and academic studies discussed in thisreport (Bennett, Bexley, and Warnock 1995).

• The publications’ quality varied or was difficult to judge. Theauthors accept the literature findings at face value, apart frommentioning limitations discussed by the sources themselves.

introduction 7

• Many of the challenges and policy options to engender the devel-opment process in conflict-affected countries are also challengesin stable settings. Where possible, the review attempts to high-light the ways in which conflict impacts gender relations, whilerecognizing that in some cases the gender challenges are not dis-similar from those in countries not affected by conflict, althoughthey are exacerbated and made more complex by conflict.

• The review focuses largely on the post-conflict phase, reflectingthe fact that the link between gender, conflict, and developmentusually receives more attention after the conflict has ended.

• There were certain omissions in the literature reviewed. Some is-sues, such as men’s involvement in informal politics, women’sparticipation in formal politics during conflict, and women’s en-gagement in the formal labor market during and after conflict,tended to receive little attention or were dealt with in a frag-mented or anecdotal manner. This made it difficult to ascertainwhether issues or trends identified in the literature were time- orcontext-specific or had broader relevance. Whenever possible,the authors indicate the context from which the material is takenor present interesting examples in text boxes.

• There is relatively little quantitative or comparative work onwhich to base generalized conclusions; therefore some modesty indrawing general inferences from this report is justified. Nonethe-less, the authors believe that the material reviewed provides suffi-cient basis for the options and recommendations presented.

The Links among Gender, Conflict, and Development

The following chapters highlight the major gender dimensions of con-flict and are organized around eight major interlinked areas or themes:(i) gender and warfare; (ii) gender-based and sexual violence; (iii) gen-der and formal peace processes; (iv) gender and informal peaceprocesses; (v) gender and the post-conflict legal framework; (vi) genderand work; (vii) gender and rehabilitating social services; and (viii) gen-der and community-driven development. Each thematic area beginswith a brief introduction that sets the context, followed by a discus-sion of how conflict affects the gender-specific roles of women andmen. Rather than assume a priori that women’s and men’s roles are in-trinsically different, or that there are no important differences, the au-thors have analyzed differences in their roles and how gender roles andgender relations change as a result of conflict. Development challengesand proposed policy options are identified. Where available, lessonslearned and best practices are provided.

8 gender, conflict, and development

chapter 2

Gender and Warfare:Female Combatantsand Soldiers’ Wives

Overview

THERE IS INCREASING EVIDENCE and recognition that women areactively involved in fighting during conflict. Although female partici-pation varies widely in military institutions authorized to use force,such as in regular armies, and in nonstate military actors, such as inirregular armies, they tend to represent between 10 percent and one-third of both these types of forces. Besides combat roles, female sol-diers can be cooks, porters, administrators, doctors, spies, partners,and sex slaves for male soldiers. Women also support warfare as civil-ians, for example, by broadcasting hate speech and instilling hatredagainst enemy groups in new generations, and thus contributing to themilitarization of men and society.

Key development challenges are to acknowledge women’s and men’sparticipation in armies and to target all women that joined thearmies—with or without weapons—with assistance. This assistanceshould not be provided exclusively through DDR programs. In a num-ber of examples, DDR programs have not targeted women or haveonly targeted women with weapons, thus excluding women who couldnot hand in a weapon at disarmament camps, and have not alwaysmanaged to adequately identify women that were eligible for assis-tance. As a result, a large number of women never actually enter theDDR program and are self-demobilized. There is thus a need to furtherimprove DDR and rehabilitation programs. One suggestion is to es-tablish a clearer division of labor between security agencies and reinte-gration or rehabilitation agencies. Security agencies generally targetwomen with weapons—and sometimes female dependents of armedmale combatants—with disarmament and demobilization assistance,whereas rehabilitation agencies aim to reach all women that joined the

9

armies with reintegration support, often combined with broader assis-tance projects focused on communities as a whole. However, this divi-sion of labor is only effective if security and reintegration agencies haveclear mandates and effective coordination mechanisms. This includesthe early identification of women in armies, the protection of women inall activities, appropriate funding of disarmament and demobilizationas compared to reintegration activities, and the adequate timing of rein-tegration activities—i.e., the implementation of reintegration activitiesin parallel with disarmament and demobilization activities, sequencedwith disarmament and demobilization activities—to avoid women’sself-demobilization.

Suggested policy options for security and reintegration agencies areto recast the definition of female combatants so that it includes womenwho are part of (ir)regular armies in any capacity, including but notlimited to women in support roles, and women forced to provide sex-ual services. Another policy option is to make extra efforts to trackand identify women in armies so that they do not remain under-reported and thus excluded from post-conflict assistance programs. Itis also vital to target women in support roles and/or abducted womenseparately from their husbands and male counterparts. Moreover,extra efforts are required to inform female ex-soldiers on accessto DDR programs, for example, by disseminating information viawomen-centered communication channels such as health centers, fooddistribution points, churches, and schools.

For security agencies and to a lesser extent rehabilitation agencies,the demobilization phase can be used to inform ex-soldiers about theirlegal rights in civilian life, but also to help them to enter into newforms of social organization such as veterans’ groups and women’s or-ganizations. These newly established frameworks for concerted actioncould help avoid isolation and encourage reintegration, particularly offemale ex-soldiers. It is also important to examine whether and howdemobilization activities and facilities could be made more gender-sensitive and more responsive to local needs and circumstances.

Rehabilitation agencies should anticipate the different economic,social, and psychological needs and opportunities of all female ex-soldiers. Regardless of the extent to which rehabilitation agencies linkthese efforts to broader community-based recovery programs, femaleex-soldiers must be assisted in dealing with a range of issues. These caninclude the women’s return to prevailing labor divisions, their inabilityto own and inherit land, and their restricted mobility due to their do-mestic burdens. Efforts that encourage their social reintegration mayneed to focus on the fact that female ex-soldiers usually have to retaketheir earlier family roles, which are strikingly different from their

10 gender, conflict, and development

wartime experiences, and the fact that they are often accused of sexualpromiscuity during conflict and face exclusion and ostracism. Finally,psychological support needs to consider issues that have a greaterimpact on women, their more difficult social reintegration, and theirexposure to gender-based and sexual violence in and after conflict.

This chapter looks at the role of men and women in warfare, whileother chapters focus on their engagement in non-war activities, recog-nizing that most women and men do not fight and continue with theirnormal daily activities (Anderson 1999).

Women in Conflict

It is usually assumed that, in comparison to each other, men are moreviolent and women are more peaceful. Fukuyama (1998), for example,refers to neo-Darwinist research to suggest that males are geneticallypredisposed to violence. Hilhorst and Frerks (1999) take a moreconstructivist approach, arguing that gender differences are context-specific and determined by each situation. In reviewing the case ofSierra Leone, Mazurana and Carlson (2004) conclude that womenand girls in the fighting forces had a complex experience—they werecaptives and dependents, but they were also involved in planning andexecuting the war. Powley (2003) also points out that a small minorityof women (2.3 percent of genocide suspects) were involved in perpe-trating Rwanda’s violence. Whatever the differences between theseapproaches, women’s active participation in conflicts is widely ac-knowledged.7 For instance, female combatants have been active inAlgeria, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal,Nicaragua, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.8 McKay andMazurana (2004) collected data on girls’ involvement in fightingforces during 1990–2003. They found that girls were part of fightingforces in 55 countries and were involved in armed conflict in 38 of the55 countries, all of them internal conflicts. In addition, girls in fightingforces participated in a number of international conflicts, includingLebanon, Macedonia, Sudan, and Uganda. Although female participa-tion varies in armies, guerrilla forces, or armed liberation movements,generally they are between one-tenth and one-third of combatants. InSri Lanka women comprised one-third of the fighting forces (Lindsey2000; Manoharan 2003); they were one-quarter of the combatants ofEl Salvador’s Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN),while in Nicaragua, women were some 30 percent of soldiers and lead-ers of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Karame 1999).

gender and warfare 11

Although women and men participate in warfare through a varietyof armed bodies, this chapter focuses on their military involvement. Itdeals with military institutions authorized to use force, such as thearmy and paramilitaries (referred to as regular armies), and nonstatemilitary actors, such as liberation and guerrilla armies, and traditionalmilitias (referred to as irregular armies). Active participants in conflictare not limited to combat roles, but may also play supporting rolessuch as cook, porter, administrator, doctor, spy, partner, and sex slave.Moreover, separating soldiers from civilians is often difficult, espe-cially in most intrastate conflicts, where distinctions are blurred due toinvolvement of irregular armies, the absence of defined battlefields, theuse of guerrilla tactics, and combatants that can easily move back andforth between combat and civilian roles.

Male and female civilians may also support the conflict withoutjoining any of the warring parties, for example, by providing moral andlogistical support to combatants, broadcasting hate speech, and instill-ing in the next generation hatred against the enemy or opposing group.Enloe (1998) relates how Serbian feminine ideals (the patriotic motheror the occasional promotion of the woman fighter) were deliberatelyconstructed to bolster the militarization of masculinity. Goldstein(2001) states “the male soldier’s construction of his gender identity—masculinity—molds boys from an early age to suppress emotions inorder to function more effectively in battle. Women support this systemin various ways. The militarized masculinity of men becomes promi-nent in conflict and is reinforced by women’s symbolic embodiment of‘normal life’ and by women witnessing male bravery.” Enloe (2000)also notes that the militarization of women is necessary for the milita-rization of men. She asserts that militarization does not always take onthe guise of war, but creeps into ordinary daily routines. Militarizationis such a pervasive process, and thus so hard to uproot, preciselybecause it may appear normal or nonthreatening.

Gender Roles in Armies

Men and women may be involved in or actively support conflict forsimilar reasons including forced recruitment, agreement with the wargoals, patriotism, religious or ideological motives, a lack of educa-tional opportunities, and economic necessity (Sörensen 1998). Brettand Specht (2004), however, also point to the different reasons girlsand boys give for joining the army. Joining a fighting force is often theonly way to survive, but, in some cases, women have joined to obtainequal rights and liberties, as well as to flee or fight oppression. Various

12 gender, conflict, and development

liberation and revolutionary movements have included women’s rightsand equality for men and women in their programs for politicalchange (Barth 2002; Manoharan 2003) (see box 2.1). In Eritrea, totaldedication to the liberation movement erased all other identities offamily, region, clan, and class (Barth 2002). In Guinea-Bissau, womenwere frequently recruited before their husbands because they were to-tally absorbed by the revolution’s ideas (Barth 2002, quoting Urdang1979). Many Salvadoran women joined the guerrillas hoping it wouldchange their lives and free them from oppression at home and in soci-ety at large (Ibañez 2001). Armies often target women for recruitment,particularly to add legitimacy or symbolic power to their war efforts.The female fighter as a symbol was very important in Eritrea and be-came an important symbol for socialist Yugoslavia. Female soldiersare also recruited because of their desire to prove themselves, whichencourages male soldiers to do their best (adapted from Barth 2002).In Mozambique, women and girls were considered more receptivethan men and boys to army discipline and new values, and thus moreobedient and easier to train.9 However, the fact that women have beenvalued by the warring parties should not obscure the fact that manywomen, like numerous men and boys—as discussed below—joinarmies against their will, particularly irregular armies.

Women that join armies—voluntarily or forcibly—tend to playthree different roles: combatant, supporter, and dependent. Relativelyfew women as compared to men operate as combatants who engage

gender and warfare 13

Box 2.1 Women Tamil Tigers Take on Combat Roles

In the Tamil movement, women initially performed paramilitary and sup-port roles but were used in combat after 1985. It is currently estimatedwomen comprise 3 out of 10 Central Committee members (highestdecision-making body of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE). Ofthe estimated total cadre strength of 10,000 to 15,000, women accountfor nearly one-third and are inducted in all of the organization’s units—fighting, political, administrative, and intelligence. Reportedly, there is nodiscrimination based on sex when it comes to training and combat oper-ations, and slogans on “equity for the nation and equality at home” arecommon. Since women are generally perceived as less dangerous in publicplaces, they have also been used in suicide attacks. However, Manoharan(2003) suggests that it is not clear whether recruitment of women wassolely to reinforce social and national freedoms or if it was a response tosevere manpower shortages in the mid-1980s.

actively in fighting. Although there are large variations among coun-tries, this is likely because there are many more male than femalesoldiers, particularly in regular armies. But underlying notions of mas-culinity and femininity also tend to associate women less with warfarethan men.

Most women in armies have support and not combat roles. Rela-tively more women as compared to men operate in armies as cooks,messengers, health workers, porters, and the like. They are not en-gaged in fighting and do not carry a weapon. Without a weapon, theyoften cannot prove they participated in armies during conflict, whichblocks their access to DDR assistance after conflict [UN Departmentfor Disarmament Affairs (UNDDA) 2003] (see box 2.2).

Women’s third role in armies is that of a dependent. They are themale combatants’ wives, widows, daughters, and other female familymembers. They may follow their male counterparts into the bush andonto the battlefield during conflict. In the same way as their malecounterparts, they need to be reintegrated back into their communitiesof origin when the conflict ends.

While in theory these roles can be described separately, in practicethey are hard to distinguish. This is the case, for example, for abductedwomen (see box 2.3). In a growing number of conflicts, women havebeen abducted into armies, particularly forced to join irregular armies,subjected to sexual violence and exploitation, and forced to marryarmy commanders or officers in their own ranks, which have majorimplications for their ability to subsequently reintegrate and becomeproductive members of society. A key question is whether to regard

14 gender, conflict, and development

Box 2.2 Soldiers in Support Roles Are Excludedfrom Assistance

Female soldiers in support roles—more so than male soldiers—found itdifficult to prove their active participation in war, especially if they werein irregular armies10 and consequently were often not included in assis-tance programs. In Mozambique, women and some men were in sup-port roles and were often not incorporated in the demobilizationprogram (Baden 1997). In East Timor and Sierra Leone, women withoutguns were not involved in demobilization programs (Rehn and Sirleaf2002; UN 2002). In Sierra Leone’s DDR program, ex-combatants ini-tially had to hand in a weapon in exchange for assistance. This one-person-one-weapon approach was later changed to group disarmament,in which commanders provided lists of ex-combatants to be disarmed,but since many women and girls in support roles were not perceived assoldiers, they were largely excluded from assistance (WCWRC 2002).

these women as dependents of the male combatants who they wereforced to marry or to regard them as women in support functions whoprovided sexual services.

The boundaries between the three roles are often blurred becausewomen combine the roles. They are fighters, spies, cooks, mothers,and wives at the same time. They fulfill multiple roles that cannot beseparated (adapted from McKay and Mazurana 2004).

Despite these blurred boundaries, most DDR and other post-conflict rehabilitation programs still provide their assistance on thebasis of artificial splits in women’s roles. Mainly, they target femalecombatants and hardly—if at all—do they target female supportersand female dependents. Therefore, the key challenge of post-conflictrehabilitation programs is to adequately address the needs of allwomen who joined armies during conflict, irrespective of whether theytook an active combat role.11

Gender Relations in the Army

Traditional relations between women and men change in the military(Barth 2002; Farr 2002; de Watteville 2002) (see box 2.4). There is atendency toward more equal gender relations as compared to those in

gender and warfare 15

Box 2.3 Women, Girls, and Boys Are ForcefullyRecruited into Civil Wars

In Mozambique during the civil war, tens of thousands of girls and boyswere abducted and pressed into service, mainly by the Mozambican Na-tional Resistance. Boys younger than eight helped in base camps untilthey were old enough for military training; girls were kidnapped formen’s sexual gratification or to cook, clean, and do laundry (de Abreu1998). A woman in Sierra Leone relates how she was forced to join theRevolutionary United Front for three years and was made the “wife” ofa man for two years. Many women, especially young girls, were forcedinto such marriages, called “jungle marriages,” “bush marriages,” or“AK-47 marriages” [Rehn and Sirleaf 2002; Women’s Commission forRefugee Women and Children (WCRWC) 2002]. In Rwanda, womenand girls were detained by military officers and forced to live with them.Other young girls, mainly Tutsi—called “ceiling girls” because they werefound by the Rwandan Patriotic Front hiding in the ceilings of huts—were not freed but taken as “war booty.” The soldiers who found themsent them to their superior officers (Turshen and Twagiramariya 1998).The Tamil Tigers also forcefully conscripted young men and women.

pre-conflict society. As stated by soldiers: “In armies women ought tolive and act similarly to men” and “women and men become comradesas soldiers.” Men and women in armies tend to share danger, livingconditions, and roles, and often have access to training and educationthat is not gender stereotyped.

While women benefit when new opportunities open up, they also“masculinize,” adopting the masculine attitudes and values that prevailin the army, rather than influencing (“femininizing”) the army (Barth2002). Although women clearly benefit from more egalitarian genderrelations in armies, this is generally more than offset by the frequencyof sexual slavery and violence against women and girls by armies.Mackay and Mazurama (2004) found that egalitarian gender relation-ships in fighting forces were not evident in the three post-conflict coun-tries they studied—instead they concluded that women and girls weresubjected to oppression, gender-specific violence, and abusive andviolent relationships, with rare opportunities to exercise autonomy.

In the case where relatively more egalitarian gender relations areprevalent in armed forces, these tend to revert to pre-existing patternswhen peace arrives. Whereas all ex-combatants from both regular andirregular armies have difficulties reintegrating into civilian life, the

16 gender, conflict, and development

Box 2.4 Gender Relations Break with Traditionin Nepal’s Maoist Army

In Nepal, women’s involvement in the Maoist army and political cadresbrought about a major break in the social fabric in rural areas. It is re-ported that every third guerrilla is a woman and that 70 percent ofwomen guerrillas are from among (the traditionally excluded) indige-nous ethnic communities. The girls and women who joined the Maoistswear combat dress, discarded all jewelry, and cropped their hair short—they are full of a liberation vocabulary and newfound confidence thatmakes ordinary village women question traditional gender roles.Women and girls who join the Maoists have been systematically sub-verting the traditional Hindu systems of women’s subordination. Forexample, they rejected the traditional notion of remaining untouchableduring menstruation and discarded the use of beads and red vermilionas a marker for married women. Villagers also report that in Maoist-controlled areas, there has been a decrease in domestic violence,polygamy, alcohol abuse, and gambling. Of course, it is too early to saywhether these positive changes would develop into sustainable socialnorms and values in Nepal’s post-conflict rural society, since they arecurrently enforced under the threat of violence (CPR 2004).

process is often more complex for female soldiers, especially becausereintegration tends to go hand-in-hand with the reintroduction ofpre-conflict gender relations (e.g., Baden 1997). Female soldiers need toreassimilate into a society where gender stereotypes are much morerigidly upheld than within the military (Farr 2002, quoting Shikola1998). Moreover, as discussed later in this report, female ex-combatantsface a number of additional issues such as health, raising children fromrape, ostracism, and domestic violence. Female ex-combatants oftenopt not to return to their communities, but instead remain in exile orrelocate to avoid reverting to traditional ways of living and restrictivesocial norms.

Development Challenges: Providing Post-ConflictAssistance to Female Ex-Soldiers

The key challenges for DDR and other post-conflict rehabilitation pro-grams are to identify and target all women who joined the (ir)regulararmies and to provide them with adequate assistance.

Until now, most assistance to women in armies tended to be pro-vided through DDR programs, which generally begin operating on theheels of a peace accord or when the security situation permits. How-ever, for a number of reasons the DDR assistance does not reachwomen in armies. First, some DDR programs tend not to targetwomen in armies at all. This relates to the fact that the overriding ra-tionale behind DDR programs is to increase security by disarmingcombatants and that social objectives are of secondary consideration.DDR programs are not primarily meant to reward or assist combat-ants, but are designed to restore security by “keeping them off thestreet” (Specht 2003) or “buying the peace” (Arthy 2003). As femalecombatants are not directly regarded as a major security threat, theyare not generally targeted by DDR programs, as was the case inMozambique, Sierra Leone, and a number of other countries.

Second, as DDR program resources are invariably scarce, they tendto be narrowly targeted and adopt a narrow definition of an ex-combatant. They usually only target female ex-combatants with aweapon. But even if women carry a weapon, they may still find it dif-ficult to prove that they were active combatants, especially if there isgroup disarmament (see box 2.2); women have to rely on male superi-ors for confirmation of their combatant status and hence eligibility forDDR support (de Watteville 2002).

Third, even if DDR programs are willing to offer support to allwomen that joined (ir)regular armies, they cannot easily track them, as

gender and warfare 17

these women tend to disappear quickly from the scene when the fight-ing ends. There are several reasons for this occurrence. One is thatwomen’s participation in conflict may become “invisible” or mini-mized in the post-conflict phase, because traditional gender relationsare reintroduced and women are expected to revert to more traditionaland less visible roles. This tendency is well expressed in the French say-ing: Il y a plus inconnu que le soldat, c’est sa femme (there is one moreunknown than the soldier, it’s his wife) (Karame 1999). As Shikola(1998) notes in the case of Namibia: “Men appreciate women whocook for them and they respect women who fought in the war withthem, but after independence they did not really consider women aspart of the liberation struggle.” This appears to be true in other coun-tries such as El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. Anotherreason is that women do not want to reveal their identity as femalecombatants, out of fear of stigmatization and association with killings,sexual violence, rape, illegitimate children, and sexual promiscuity(see box 2.5).

Yet another reason is that women—particularly abducted womenwho forcibly became the “wives” of soldiers and who in some situationsare considered the “rewards” of their captors—do not wait for a DDRprogram to start, but escape from the army as soon as possible (seebox 2.6). In the McKay and Mazurana (2004) study of Mozambique,Sierra Leone, and Uganda, they refer to this process as spontaneousreintegration—a large number of girls spontaneously found their wayhome and thus did not receive DDR benefits or social reintegration as-sistance to provide physical, material, or psychosocial help. They oftenface huge demobilization and reintegration challenges and frequentlyend up in isolation and extreme poverty after the conflict ends.

18 gender, conflict, and development

Box 2.5 Female Soldiers Hide Their Identity

“Targeting female soldiers is a problem when women do not want to berecognized as combatants after a war is over because of stigma attachedto this. An example comes f